Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Annual Teen Poetry Contest 2019!
Group 1
1st Place: For Humanity’s Shake by Inshal K.
2nd Place: To Reverse Hate by Noreen C.
Group 2:
1st Place: How Could You by Grace M.
2nd Place: A Red Rose by Tina T.
Thank you to everyone who submitted their poems this year and look for our Teen Poetry Contest next year in April 2020. Here are your winning poems:
Group 1 – 1st Place: For Humanity’s Sake by Inshal K.
I’m begging you to stop, people of planet Earth
For whatever little my words are worth
Genocide, famine, destruction, and war
We feel detached from it, watching from afar
But how many more lives do we need,
How many more hearts will have to bleed?
Children drinking from filthy lakes,
Why must you pay for our mistakes?
I’m sorry the world has treated you so
Taking your innocent little souls
Tearing apart your hopes and dreams
Ignoring your young, heartbroken screams
I’m sorry for every tear that fell from your eyes
I’m sorry you had to kiss your parents goodbye
We still don’t ask ourselves then
Though we have let this happen
Because how many more hash tags will it take
How many more souls will have to ache
How many more lives will be lost
Trying and failing to pay this never-ending cost
Or is too much to ask for?
I just want to know how much more…
How much more will it take.
For humanity’s sake
Group 1 – 2nd Place: To Reverse Hate by Noreen C.
What is hate?
One is spurred to ask the question
Because it burns strong
Every newly sprouted seed, that is, hope
Brings
The death of more flowers
Until one only knows that things like
Love.
Mutual respect.
Thoughtfulness.
Are all masked by
Loneliness
That comes with
The hopelessness
And
A broken relationship
Of
Fear and abuse
All around them.
And they only see it.
Where is love?
It inspires one to ask
Love is found.
When hate is turned upside down.
Group 2 – 1st Place: How Could You? by Grace M.
As the drops of scarlet ran from my knee
And my eyes filled with unvoiced despair
You tend the break with nurture and care
When my throat dries like a deserted sea,
You set aside your cup, spill it for me.
Even when I flounder, thrash and tear
You are not fazed by erosion and wear,
Listening and offering lavishly
This, I do not understand. How could you
Give and give, endure and sacrifice for
Boundless years to come, moons that continue
Your love pervades time, a love I adore
How could you, in return, want nothing new?
When I am a mother, I will know more.
Group 2 – 2nd Place: A Red Rose by Tina T.
You are my Achilles heel
We’ve fallen into the hands of fate
You stuck a match and it blew my mind
When our eyes met I knew you were my kind
The fire inside my veins
The anchor in the waves
Just promise me
You will never leave
Pictures in frames
Of kisses on cheeks
A library filled with memories
My favourite books to read
So we’ll paint our blue hearts golden
You and me two faces of the same coin
Just promise me
You will never leave
They’re burning all the witches
But I know that you aren’t one
And if they dare to make you bleed
I will gift you justice count on me
And if you shatter please remember
Your string of lights still shine bright to me
Just promise me
You will never leave
So I’ve spoken in shades of wrong
And you were really never no angel
But we turned pain into works of art
A mosaic of broken hearts
And in the end I put chains on my door
But in a heartbeat I’ll cut them if you ask
I promise you
I will never go.